Kip Keino Classic teeming with stars

A total of 265 athletes both local and international will compete at the Kip Keino Classic, the final event in the 2021 World Athletics Continental Gold Tour on September 18 in Nairobi.

Athletics Kenya president Jack Tuwei disclosed Friday that 185 will participate in core and discretionary races of the tour that will take place at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.

Tuwei said they have invited 80 local athletes to compete in the national events of the tour that was moved from the Nyayo National Stadium to Kasarani in view of giving the athletes better facilities.

Tuwei said preparations for the one-day event are almost complete with the grand launch set for Monday from 9am at Ole Sereni Hotel, Nairobi.

At the same time, Tuwei disclosed that the event will for the second year be held without fans owing to Covid-19 protocols.

“We have attracted a better and quality field compared to last year and it’s only wise to give them the best with Kasarani having just hosted the World Under-20 Athletics Championships last month,” said Tuwei. “The set up will be similar to the world junior event with a Press Centre and media tribune.”

“All the logistics and the final entry list will be provided during the launch on Monday when we also expect some of the international athletes to arrive,” explained Tuwei.

The athletics supremo intimated that most international athletes have expressed their willingness to compete in Nairobi especially with the end of the Diamond League in Zurich on Thursday night.

Leading the local international athletes will be the Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Chepng’etich, who is fresh from winning the Diamond League Trophy, Olympic 800m silver medallist Ferguson Rotich and fast-rising sprints sensation Ferdinand Omanyala.

Omanyala will face off with three-time World 100m champion Justin Gatlin and the fastest man this year Bromell Trayvon all from the United States. 

Olympic 3,000m steeplechase bronze medallist Benjamin Kigen, who also won his maiden Diamond League Trophy in steeplechase in Zurich, will renew rivalry with Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco.

World 100m bronze medallist Ivorian Marie-Josee Ta Lou will face Namibian teenagers Olympic 200m silver medallist Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi among others. Mboma is fresh from winning the Diamond League Trophy in 200m in Zurich.

World 100m silver medallist Fred Kerley from the United States will take on Commonwealth Games 400m champion Isaac Makwala from Botswana and the Nairobi World Under-20 200m bronze medallist Sinesipho Dambile from South Africa in men's 200m.

Tuwei took time to congratulate the Kenyan athletes who participated in this year’s Diamond League and especially those who reached the finale in Zurich and went on to win.

Chepng'etich (1,500m) and Emmanuel Korir (800m) led compatriots Olympic 1,500m silver medallist Timothy Cheruiyot, Olympic 3,000m steeplechase bronze medallist Benjamin Kigen and steeplechaser Norah Jeruto to victories in Zurich.

There will be nine core events on card during the Kip Keino Classic; men and women’s hammer throw, men’s pole vault, women’s long jump, men’s 100m, men and women’s 200m and men and women’s 3,000m steeplechase.

The men and women’s 5,000m, men and women’s 1,500m, men and women’s 800m and men’s javelin throw will fall under the discretionary events.

Only men’s 1,500m and women’s 5,000m will be the only discretionary races that will be televised alongside the core races in the official program that gets underway at 4pm.

Those falling under the national events are men and women’s 400m, men and women’s 400m hurdles, men’s 10,000m, 4x400m mixed relay and men’s high jump.